Page 344 - DENG404_FICTION

Fiction Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 29: Virginia Woolf — Mrs. Dalloway:
Detailed Study of Text

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
29.1 Detailed Study of Text Part I Sections
29.1.1 Part I, Sections 1–3
29.1.2 Part I, Sections 4–5
29.2 Detailed Study of Text Part II Sections

29.2.1 Part II, Sections 1–2
29.2.2 Part II, Sections 3–4
29.2.3 Part II, Sections 5–6
29.3 Summary
29.4 Keywords

29.5 Review Questions
29.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

• Explain the detailed study of the text
• Explain summary and analysis of the text.

Introduction

Virginia Wool’s Mrs. Dalloway is the story of a day in June 1923, as lived by a few London
citizens. There is a calm in the air; people are enjoying a sense of peace and remembering their
lives from before the long and bitter World War I.
Mrs. Dalloway is a novel about people’s inner lives. It does not possess a vivid plot; the actual
events are secondary to what people spend much of their time pondering: memories, regrets,
and hopes. Almost all of the main characters wonder about what might have been. The novel
is told from the viewpoint of an ommniscient and invisible narrator. Most of the characters are
well off financially, and have considerable leisure time. Yet they are quite busy with the
business of being alive, which includes asking questions of their internal and external worlds.
These questions do not always make them happy. On the contrary, most of the characters are
unhappy for all or part of their day. In keeping with Woolf’s interest in psychology, sexuality
is a theme in the novel. Several of the characters are divided in their feelings towards love,
and this contributes to their ambivalence.

The actions of the novel are simple: Clarissa Dalloway is hosting a formal party. She sees Peter
Walsh, who has returned from India, and drops in for a visit. This meeting, and many other

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